At first glance it looks like Phil Wu is just another guy wearing glasses.

But take a second look and you realize there's something missing — lenses.

Instead, projected out from the frames and in the top of Wu's field of vision is what looks like a tiny glass rectangle. It's Google Glass.

Welcome to the world of wearable computers, where glasses can transport you to a world of augmented reality and wristwatches do a lot more than tell time. T-shirts? They could be monitoring your heartbeat.

"OK Glass, take a picture," says Wu, a local software developer, and the tiny glass lights up.

And instantly, the photo of your surprised face is broadcast for the world to see on Twitter.

When you put Glass on and adjust the screen, you have to look up a little to decipher what's on it. Even though it seems impossibly tiny, you can read messages, look at photos, scroll through posts and carry out other functions. There's even an app called Winky that lets you take a photo by winking.

At the forefront of this trend in wearable computers is digital behemoth Google, which has persuaded developers and early adopters to shell out $1,500 (plus tax) to be among the first to try out Google Glass. Glass is a wearable computer that you don like a pair of glasses but is actually a head-mounted display delivering all the power of a smartphone or tablet computer ­— and more.

And the technology isn't just the purview of giant corporations such as Google. Vancouver's Recon Instruments showed off its new Recon Jet, a wearable computer that's incorporated into a pair of polarized sunglasses, at Google's annual developers' conference this week. Recon had its start as a student project at the University of B.C.

The heads-up display interactive glasses have a high-resolution widescreen and a list of smartphone and tablet-like features — a dual-core processor, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, a high-definition video and still camera, and sensors that can measure everything from temperature to the gradient of the hill that you may be cycling on.

Pebble, another wearable computer, is a smartwatch that launched with a $10-million Kickstarter project — the most successful Kickstarter initiative in the online fundraiser's history. It was the brainchild of Eric Migicovsky, a graduate of Vancouver's Sir Winston Churchill Secondary and the University of Waterloo, and this week raised $15 million in Series A funding.

Wearable computer technology, once the stuff of space-age movies, isn't debuting without debate. Even as Google distributes the first run of its Google Glass, a backlash over privacy concerns is seeing movie theatres, casinos and even coffee shops banning the controversial Glass.

The technology is being closely watched by privacy commissioners in Canada.

Elizabeth Denham, British Columbia's Information and Privacy Commissioner, said unlike smartphones that have cameras, head-mounted cameras such as Glass and Recon's Jet make it easier to take photos or videos of people without their knowledge. And once the photo or video is taken, it can be broadcast to the world over the Internet.

"It is more surreptitious," said Denham. "You don't necessarily know when you are being videotaped. We are more socialized to someone having a smartphone."

Denham said there is also the potential to combine images that are captured on a wearable camera with other emerging technologies and tools such as face recognition, with implication for data mining and other consequences.

Recon is positioning its new Jet as a sports and health tool that follows up on its interactive ski and snowboarding goggles rather than an everyday general-use device. But the privacy furor has the Vancouver company proceeding cautiously. Recon is pledging not to activate the camera on its wearable computer until it is certain not only of its legal position with regard to privacy in Canada, the United States, Europe and other countries, but also of any ethical and moral issues.

"We're very sensitive to the issues of privacy, especially relative to the on-board high-definition camera," said Recon's chief marketing officer Tom Fowler. "The fact is, while we have the hardware capability on Jet, at least initially we do not intend to activate it from a software perspective until we are comfortable we have a well-considered point of view relative to privacy concerns.

"That is being hotly debated right now."

Recon Jet is focusing on specific sports applications, like biking or golf, but Fowler said he can see applications in many fields, such as medicine.

"Because our product is activity specific, it's not the kind of product you would be thinking someone would be wearing into a bar to have a few drinks and dinner," he said. "You're going to be wearing it cycling, playing golf, or perhaps someday with the right application during your shift in ER.

"The heads-up display could have all the patient's vital stats in a critical operation."

The Recon Jet is still in pre-market stage, with the company planning for production by the end of this year. Prototype Google Glass has been distributed to a relatively small number of people — less than 2,000 developers and early adopters, who are drawing a lot of attention to the new device with their videos and photo posts taken with Glass and posted on Google + and other social networks.

On Thursday, eight members of U.S. Congress asked Google's chief executive officer Larry Page for assurances that there would be privacy safeguards with Google Glass, which is expected to be launched for the consumer market next year.

Privacy concerns have even spawned new — if somewhat derogatory — slang to describe someone who uses Glass inappropriately: Glasshole.

In Canada, new devices such as Google Glass and Recon Jet would be governed by provincial and federal privacy legislation.

"Just like any new technology, this has the potential to bring interesting and great benefits to people and organizations, but this particular technology also raises implications for people's personal privacy," she said. "The application of this technology is covered by B.C. and Canadian law.

"Unlike the situation in the United States, where they have a more sectoral and piecemeal approach to privacy, these applications are fully captured in Canadian law."

Denham said it is not simply the ability to take photos and videos that is the issue but what happens with the data that is collected.

"For the Canadian (privacy) commissioners, we need more information about the technical aspects about how it actually functions, how people are going to use it and what controls are going to be in place," she said.

"Our laws don't prohibit technologies but there are obligations in the law that have to be complied with."

Wu is a developer with Service-Link, a Metro Vancouver company that specializes in software for mobile communications and field service dispatching for utility companies. He was at last year's Google developers' conference where attendees were offered the opportunity to put their names in to be the first to get Google Glass. His company is interested in the potential for Google Glass for use by utility workers in the field. Such workers could be repairing or completing other tasks on equipment and following specific guidelines, would could be fed to the screen that they can see hands-free and there could be two-way transmissions of photos and videos to aid in the task at hand.

While Wu said he practices Glass etiquette, dropping the frames around his neck or putting them on his head when he walks into a public washroom or some other place where he doesn't want people to worry he may be taking their photo, he thinks the worries over privacy are somewhat unwarranted.

When the Glass camera is activated, either for video or still photos, the screen lights up so if you're looking at the person wearing Glass it's fairly obvious, Wu said — if, that is, you know what the lighted screen means. You also have to use your hand to press the camera button or give a voice command to take a photo or video.

"I don't know why people are afraid," he said. "If you look at me now, it is pretty obvious I am taking a picture — there is a light on my face.

"If I wanted to spy on someone I would just go to eBay and search spy cameras."

Wu brought his Glass to the Vancouver Sun newsroom for a demo and if our subsequent Google Glass tour of Gastown is any indication, the newest wearable computer is attracting a lot of hype.

People stopped, they stared. And ironically, the security guard who stopped our Vancouver Sun videographer to tell him that taking photos and videos on-site was prohibited failed to notice the Google Glass recording our tour.

"Bladerunner. Can I try it?" said Salar Rismani, who stopped long enough to try out Glass with some commands.

Walking along Cordova Street, Jeff Powell recognized the Google Glass although he had only seen it in photos.

"They certainly stand out," he said. "It's one of those things, I can see the chip in front of his eye and that kind of makes me wonder what he's up to right now, so it makes me a little bit kind of leery.

"My first impressions anyway but maybe that's where we are going to end up going with everything, where we are always connected to technology."

Glass comes with both a clear lens and a polarized lens for sunshine and Google promises that with its production version next year, you'll be able to use prescription lenses with it. However, for now Wu, who usually wears glasses, has to wear contacts to see the tiny Glass screen that hovers in the top of his field of vision, in front of his right eye.

Just like your smartphone, Glass functions depend on apps known in Glass circles as "Glassware." It connects to the Internet via Wi-Fi when you're within a Wi-Fi network and it uses the data connection on your smartphone when you're out of Wi-Fi range, connecting to your phone through Bluetooth.

Already there are a number of apps that work with Glass including Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Evernote and others, as well as Google's own Google+, Gmail and Google Now.

You control Glass by nodding, tapping and swiping on the arm of the frame, or by using voice commands. Developers are creating apps that will make it work in other ways.

Nod or tap it to turn it on, say "OK Glass," and the device is ready to answer your needs — whether it's "find directions to the closest coffee shop," dictate a text or email or search online for cute pictures of cats.

While Google isn't recommending using Glass while driving and West Virginia has already introduced legislation banning the use of a wearable computer with a head-mounted display, if you ask Glass for directions a voice will deliver them to you turn-by-turn, just as your smartphone or auto-mounted GPS will do.

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